Church News and Events

Church Breaks Ground for Indiana’s First Temple

Elder Donald L. Hallstrom (second from left) of the Presidency of the Seventy leads the Indianapolis Indiana Temple groundbreaking. Left to right are Brian Sullivan of Shiel Sexton (temple builder), Elder and Sister Donald L. Hallstrom, Carmel Mayor James Brainard, and Elder and Sister Gregory A. Schwitzer.

Church and community leaders broke ground Saturday, September 29, 2012, for the Indianapolis Indiana Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, announced by President Thomas S. Monson in October 2010.

Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy conducted the ceremony. Elder Gregory A. Schwitzer of the Seventy also assisted, as did local Church and community leaders.

“We are your friends,” said Elder Hallstrom. “The members of the Church are here to serve you.”

He also explained that “the holy temple helps us to know, in our lives, what to embrace and what to discard.” He challenged Church members to develop traditions of righteousness.

Paul H. Sinclair, president of the Indianapolis Indiana North Stake, told the gathering at the temple site and thousands of members watching on television in meetinghouses throughout the temple district that “the temple is not a reward for a job well done; it is an invitation to worship and to work.”

The temple will be located in the city of Carmel and will serve 25,000 Latter-day Saints in Indiana and eastern Illinois. Church membership in Indiana is approximately 42,000.